Dial M for Movies

Pretty much any movie buff worth his or her popcorn can point to a slew of directors rightly celebrated not only for their enduring films, but for the artistry and attention they lavish on specific, utterly indelible scenes. Kubrick comes to mind, as does Malick. Spielberg, of course. Kurosawa, Fellini, Scorsese. But no director in the history of the medium can lay claim to helming as many signature movie moments as Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock. In fact, devoted moviegoers can reel off a litany of immortal scenes from any one of Hitch’s greatest films — Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho and so many others — that live on, vividly, in the memory years after we first encountered them.

Here, as a new biopic based on Hitchcock comes to the screen — with Anthony Hopkins filling the rotund role — we’ve resisted the urge to salute, say, the 25 or 50 greatest scenes in his career and instead have selected the 10 most memorable moments from 10 of the Master of Suspense’s most admired films. Let the nail-biting begin.